e of them. "We had
only two or three brace all morning, though we were a little more
fortunate when we got up onto the higher land. It's my candid opinion
that we should have done better there, but Leslie had all the luck in
the turnips, and he made a shocking bad use of it."

"That's a fact," assented Leslie with what struck Millicent as a rather
strained laugh. "I was right off the mark. There are some days when
you simply can't shoot."

Several of the women guests now entered the hall, but the men did not
come in. Judging from the sounds outside they seemed to be waiting
while coats or cartridge bags were handed down to them from the
dog-cart, and they were evidently bantering one another in the
meanwhile.

"It depends upon how long you sit up in the smoking-room on the
previous night," said one of them, and another observed:

"If you happen to be in business, the state of the markets has its
effect."

Millicent started again at this, for she remembered her husband's
expression when he had read his letter on the preceding evening. A
third speaker took up the conversation.

"I don't think any variation in the price of Colonials or Kaffirs, or
of wheat and cotton, for that matter, should prevent a man from telling
the difference between a hare and a dog. I've a suspicion that if Tom
cares to look he'll find one or two number six pellets in the
hindquarters of the setter. It's a good thing our friend wasn't quite
up to his usual form that time."

A burst of laughter followed, and Leslie's voice broke through it
rather sharply as he replied: "He should have kept the brute in hand.
The difference isn't a big one when you can only see a liver-colored
patch through a clump of bracken. Besides, there was a hare."

"Undoubtedly," cried somebody. "Lawson got it."

Then they came in one after another, and while some of them spoke to
their hostess and the other women Leslie walked up to the little table
where several letters were spread out. Millicent watched him as he did
it, and there was no doubt that the very way he moved was suggestive of
restrained eagerness. She saw him tear open a telegram and crumple it
in his hand, after which he seized a second one and ripped it across
the fold in his clumsy haste. Then as he put the pieces together his
face grew suddenly pale and haggard. Nobody else, however, appeared to
notice him, and he leaned with one hand upon the table for a moment or
two with his hea